It’s a surreal feeling sitting at a follow-up doctor appointment with your urologist and she’s talking to a doctor in training about what had happened to you and says “on the ambulance ride here, she went into septic shock. She needed to be resuscitated and that is why she needed to be in ICU.” I sat there in disbelief, still not feeling as if I was that bad off.

Every day, in temples far and wide across Pagandom, offerings are made, and prayers go up, for the well-being of pagan peoples everywhere. The Lore would have it that, indeed, the very well-being of our People depends on these prayers and offerings, and everyone agrees that, once the making of prayers and offerings has begun, it is bad to discontinue them.

The TV remote oracle is the most punk rock form of divination possible. You can think of your remote control as a wand, and as self-described “White Wizard” Thelemite and bestselling author Lon Milo Duquette says, “TV is a medieval magician’s dream come true—a magic mirror that informs, entertains, and (if we’re not careful,) enchants.” So whether you spend all of your time watching the Syfy Channel or Game of Thrones, or even if you only watchLord of the Rings and Hobbit reruns you can still wield your magic powers with your remote control.

For about two weeks every May, a dreamy scent drifts throughout my neighborhood. The source is the common lilac (Syringa vulgaris), also known as French lilac. Most of the houses in my area of town are Victorians and the plethora of lilac shrubs are due to a long-standing tradition in North America to plant one by the front door. With spreading roots that tend to go out of bounds, lilacs end up in neighboring yards. Luckily, no one seems to consider this a problem and we all get to enjoy the sweet fragrance. The scent is beloved by so many people that arboretums in a number of states have a special event called Lilac Sunday.